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'Halo 4' Is A Beautiful, Tragic Love Story

Halo 4 brings us the most emotionally charged story we’ve encountered in the long-running video game franchise.

SPOILERS ahead.

Halo 4 is a game that gets right down to business.

Master Chief and Cortana are reunited but they don’t have long before guns are blazing, Covenant dropships are swooping down from the sky, and general chaos has broken loose.

At first it all feels quite familiar—the same alien antagonists from previous games (though looking a great deal prettier) and the same guns, the same greens and blues.

But about halfway through the game the familiarity begins to wash away.

Most obviously, the colors of Halo 4 become much warmer than previous entries in the franchise. Magma reds and oranges replace the cooler color scheme that’s defined Halo. Gone are the purples and blues and greens (at least for a while) as we’re introduced to a new enemy, the Prometheans, and their overlord the Didact, a long-imprisoned member of the ancient and mysterious Forerunners who has gone over to the Dark Side.

All of this makes for some great space opera drama—and, of course, lots and lots of action taking place across a wide variety of terrains and vehicles—but the real heart of the story takes place on a much more personal level.

The story of Master Chief and his AI companion Cortana is surprisingly touching.

Part of this is the writing which is minimalist, tightly paced, and sincere. Chris Schlerf, Halo 4′s lead writer, and the rest of the writing term deserve all the praise they’ve received.

The voice acting, with the Eastwood-esque Steve Downes delivering a solid performance and Jen Taylor as Cortana running away with the show, is excellent throughout.

A great deal of the story’s success must also be laid at the feet of the animators and programmers who have crafted some of the most stunning cutscenes I’ve seen in a video game, and at the feet of its composers who have written a lovely original soundtrack that compliments each stage of the adventure perfectly.

But it’s all these parts crafted into one compelling whole that makes the story of Master Chief and Cortana such a beautiful and tragic tale.

Perhaps the highest praise I can give to this game is that I never once wanted to skip a cutscene. Each scene was brief enough and believable enough to harness my attention fully. Especially toward the end of the game, the scenes—both in-game and cut—gained an emotional intensity that I found both welcome and surprising.

As Cortana begins her descent into an AI version of madness, I found myself increasingly uncomfortable and concerned. So did Master Chief, even if he isn’t one for too many words.

By the end, I felt a real weight, a real sadness. As Master Chief stares down at Earth, I could feel his melancholy. How 343 Industries managed to convey so much emotion through a visor, I really don’t know. But it was there and it was powerful.

I say all of this as someone who typically isn’t really fond of many linear, story-driven games. I’ve a terrible habit for skipping cutscenes and racing through dialogue. It’s my attention deficit issues at play, I’m quite sure, but I’m very often an impatient gamer. I blame this also on the often bad writing and laughable cutscenes we find in so many games and which Halo 4 so magnificently avoids.

Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good love story.

Which is what Halo 4 really is: a love story but not a romance.

The affection between Cortana and Master Chief is not romantic, despite the odd sexualization of Cortana.

This is only fitting. Master Chief is a Christ-like figure; even his name, John-117, can be read as a biblical reference. There is no room in his mythology for romantic relationships.

So we have a man who seems more machine than human and an AI that seems more human than machine. The two not only compliment one another, they come to depend on one another and as we can see in the events of Halo 4, this can only really be described as love.

Cortana’s final sacrifice is no less poignant because she is not human, because there are other models of her in the universe.

Later, when Master Chief is reminded that soldiers are humans and not machines, it’s almost as if he’s been slapped.

And his last line, spoken only to the stars—She said that to me once. About being a machine—was simply beautiful. A haunting, poetic farewell, and a brief glimpse at the super soldier as something less machine and much more profoundly human.

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I tend to skip cutscenes because they feel like an interruption rather than a continuation of the game play, also because I know a marker will appear telling me where to go after the scene; these kind of games make cinematics telling me what I need to do pointless. But for someone who does love linear story-telling, Halo 4 sounds very promising, something I might be willing to immerse myself in.

It’s also promising that a game developer was able to distinguish between a physical and non-physical love story. Definitely shows maturity.

Great article Mr. Kain. I too found myself engrossed with the relationship of Chief and Cortana. I was fighting my way to the next cut-scene instead of the opposite. The writers did a fantastic job developing these two further as well as diving deeper into their feelings for each other and their dependence.

The ending was very touching, but in a way poetic, as they had both been searching for their humanity in a way. The emotions of Cortana finally being able to place her hand onto Chiefs armor – to touch and feel him – so subtle, yet powerful.

I wonder how can they continue the story from here, is Cortana dead or has a copy of her somewhere, what about the Covenant? The story feels like a closure rather than the beginning of a new 3 episode story.

SPOILERS ABOUND: Here’s just my personal theory: the game focused quite a bit on the effects of merging digital and physical existence. I’m sure that the Didact will return, considering that he has already died once in the extended Halo canon. I have a feeling that Cortana will continue to coexist in some form within the Didact’s own consciousness. Maybe in Halo 5, Chief will have to choose between destroying the Didact to save humanity (thereby destroying his last link to Cortana), or allowing him to get away so that he may find a final solution to get her back in Halo 6. He definitely loves her though, and Halos 5 and 6 will continue to explore that in some form. I think she’ll be back.

I’ll admit it, there were manly tears going on during the last moments. Never thought I’d feel sympathy for a character with no face.

Even without the Chief, the player reaction is also very emotional. Cortana has been there all throughout the series, calmly guiding you through the craziness. Then in Halo 4 you find yourself having to work around her and then she’s….gone.

To succeed in the future without Cortana, 343 is going to have to double down on the characters. Some of the new faces in Halo 4 are ripe for development:

Lasky already has history with the Chief, and I want to see where that goes, him dealing with the responsibilities of commanding a massive ship could also be interesting.

Palmer looks like a bunch of fun, and Jennifer Hale is a wonderful voice actress. Her and Lasky have some good chemistry playing off each other (judging for the first CG episode of Spartan Ops) That could be fun to watch.

All in all, I’m extremely impressed with how the new stewards of Halo are handling narrative.

This article is the best I have read on Halo 4, thank you. I do agree with some of the comments that preceded mine, in the fact that 343 has now taken a huge challenge upon themselves for what is in the future, but it is hopeful. Originally I was cautious of 343, but by the end they delivered.

To me this game felt very different in its structure from any other game. Each action in the campaign had a very strong purpose to it rather than aimlessly shooting to get to the end. The love story is sad, but advanced which makes it beautiful.

Have you played the game? It is a very advanced story, especially for a FPS. Halo 4 has fully integrated into the novels making the universe of game and book unite. I am a gamer, all my friends are gamers, and the people I surround myself with are gamers. Some do not like Halo, some love it to death. We all agree on one thing: that Halo has the most in-depth story for any FPS, and arguable for any game (though Skyrim and the games of the series could be argued to have the title as well). It is developed and evolved. Rarely have I heard any compliments for story except for Halo (and Skyrim + kin). -From a Gamer